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Dorian was born to Patrick, a former Hollywood actor and stunt double for Elvis Presley, and Susan, who competed in female bodybuilding events. When Shane was three, his parents opened a restaurant called "Dorian's" on the beach. Being a child, Dorian was too young to wait tables, and long hours at the restaurant resulted in him turning to the ocean for amusement. Dorian attended Konawaena High School in Kealakekua, Hawaii.

When he's not surfing you can find him at his home in Holualoa on the Big Island of Hawaii with his wife Lisa and his son. He likes to ride around on an old John Deere tractor taking care of his orchard that consists of 110 fruit trees at an elevation of 4000 feet above sea level.[4]

Shane Dorian started out on a bodyboard alongside friend, and future bodyboarder champion, Mike Stewart. Dorian received his first surfboard, from his dad, on his fifth birthday. He soon abandoned the bodyboard to focus on surfing.[5]

Surfing and surfing education became a priority for Dorian. Dorian's mother, who had divorced Shane's father Patrick when Shane was 12, worked out a system where Shane would spend the second and third quarters of the school year on the North Shore of Oahu (the peak winter season) and the first and fourth quarters back home on the Big Island.

In 1987, Dorian had his first major success at the Gotcha Pro competition at Sandy Beach. He was able to beat some big names, made it through four rounds, and received some media exposure. He became friends with a couple of the up-and-coming surfers on Oahu, Brock Little and Todd Chesser who played a role in the development of his surfing.

Since 1995, Dorian has directed the Shane Dorian Keiki Classic for surfers 17 and under.

Dorian has been a long-time member of the Billabong U.S. surf team, his main sponsor.

Dorian joined the ASP World Tour in 1993 where he hovered outside of the top 10 for a number of years before cracking the barrier with a fourth-place world finish in 2000. He has also won a number of events in his career, including the Rip Curl Pro in 1999 and the 2000 Billabong Pro at Mundaka. In 2004, Dorian retired from the WTC tour, but not from a being a professional; choosing to focus on becoming a better surfer.[6]

After retirement, Dorian started to concentrate on big wave surfing, mainly towing into big waves via jet ski, which was the norm then. However, over the years, he and his fellow big wave surfers have preferred paddling into big waves. Dorian took the top prize at the 2008 Global Big Wave awards in California.[7]

Dorian is featured in an ESPN on ABC television series three-part special called World of X-Games: Big Wave Hellmen that premiered on October 26, 2014 and ran until November 9, 2014. It follows Shane along with five of his Big Wave Hellmen competitors: Grant "Twiggy" Baker, Ryan "Hippo" Hipwood, Mark Healey and Greg Long touring the biggest and best big wave breaks in the world competing for the big wave world title. A panel of judgeds, one will be crowned "Big Wave Hellmen of the Year". They spent a year around the globe chasing monster swells to hunt down and ride the most dangerous waves they could find. And in the end, determined by a panel of expert judges, who include legendary big wave surfers, Greg Noll and Mike Parsons, and author of Ghost Wave: The Discovery of Cortes Bank Chris Dixon, one will be crowned "Big Wave Hellmen of the Year".

In December 2010, Dorian had a terrifying wipeout at Mavericks in a two-wave hold-down that almost killed him.[8] The incident motivated Shane to design surfing's first "safety suit" to be inflated with a CO2 cartridge in a wetsuit vest during a potentially deadly hold-down. He helped develop the final product that is capable of instantly "torpedoing" a trapped-underwater surfer back to the surface when inflated. He said the invention was inspired by a near-drowning he had at the Northern California premiere big wave spot not long after his first session there.[9]